Self-driving packets with conditional commands

• US 10,972,397 B2
• Filed: 09/07/2018
• Issued: 04/06/2021
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Li, Renwei, Clemm, Alexander, Chunduri, Uma S., Makhijani, Kiran
• Primary Examiner(s): Ghowrwal, Omar J
• Application Number:
  US16/124,770
• Publication Number:
  US 20190104075A1
• Time in Patent Office: 942 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/036 Updating the topology between route computation elements, e.g. between OpenFlow controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/037 Routes obligatorily traversing service-related nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/0377 for service chaining
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/08 Learning-based routing, e.g. using neural networks or artificial intelligence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/20 Hop count for routing purposes, e.g. TTL
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/566 Routing instructions carried by the data packet, e.g. active networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2458 Modification of priorities while in transit
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2483 involving identification of individual flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/32 by discarding or delaying data units, e.g. packets or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/35 by embedding flow control information in regular packets, e.g. piggybacking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/76 using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation requested by the user or requested by the network in response to changing network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/3009 Header conversion, routing tables or routing tags
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers

Abstract

A mechanism is disclosed for implementing conditional commands carried by network data packets. A data flow including a data packet is received. The data packet includes a conditional command. A condition and a command are obtained from the conditional command. The mechanism determines that the condition is satisfied. Based on the determination that the condition is satisfied, the command is executed to alter handling of the data flow, alter handling of the data packet, or alter a context for the data flow.

Claims

1. A network device comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a data flow including a data packet, the data packet including a conditional command; and

a processor coupled to the receiver, the processor configured to;

obtain a command from the conditional command;

obtain a condition set from the conditional command, the condition set including a plurality of conditions to be satisfied before the command is executed such that the command is ignored when the condition set is not satisfied, and the plurality of conditions comprising a state of the network device processing the data packet;

obtain a value from an and/or field from the conditional command, value being a first value when the plurality of conditions must all be met to satisfy the condition set and execute the command, the value being a second value different from the first value when any of the plurality of conditions can be met to satisfy the condition set and execute the command;

determine that the condition set is satisfied; and

based on the determination that the condition set is satisfied, execute the command to alter handling of the data flow, alter handling of the data packet, or alter a flow context for the data flow.

2. The network device of claim 1, wherein the conditional command further includes one or more command parameters, the command parameters containing data indicating a value employed as an input for the command.

3. The network device of claim 1, wherein the conditional command further includes a condition parameter, the condition parameter containing data indicating a value to support evaluation of the plurality of conditions.

4. The network device of claim 1, wherein the conditional command further includes a global parameter, the global parameter containing data indicating a value to support evaluation of all conditional commands in a header of the data packet or to support consuming information associated with the global parameter.

5. The network device of claim 1, further comprising memory storing routing instructions for the data flow, wherein the command is a complementary command executed in addition to the stored routing instructions.

6. The network device of claim 1, further comprising memory storing routing instructions for the data flow, wherein the command is an override command executed instead of the stored routing instructions.

7. The network device of claim 1, wherein the conditional command instructs the network device to modify a resource allocation for the data flow, modify a chosen next hop for the data flow, or update the flow context for the data flow when the condition set is satisfied.

8. The network device of claim 1, wherein the conditional command instructs the network device to modify data in the data packet, modify a chosen next hop for the data packet, modify a priority for the data packet, drop the data packet, buffer the data packet, or modify metadata in the data packet when the condition set is satisfied.

9. The network device of claim 1, wherein determining that the condition set is satisfied includes parsing data from the data packet, checking the flow context of the data flow, checking the state of the network device, comparing data items, or checking an identity of the network device.

10. A method comprising:

receiving, at a receiver in a network device, a data flow including a data packet, the data packet including a conditional command;

obtaining, by a processor in the network device, a command from the conditional command;

obtaining, by the processor, a condition set from the conditional command, the condition set including a plurality of conditions to be satisfied before the command is executed such that the command is ignored when the condition set is not satisfied, and the plurality of conditions comprising a state of the network device processing the data packet;

obtaining a value from an and/or field from the conditional command, the value being a first value when the plurality of conditions must all be met to satisfy the condition set and execute the command, the value being a second value different from the first value when any of the plurality of conditions can be met to satisfy the condition set and execute the command;

determining, by the processor, that the condition set is satisfied; and

based on the determination that the condition set is satisfied, executing, by the processor, the command to alter handling of the data flow, alter handling of the data packet, or alter a flow context for the data flow.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the conditional command further includes one or more command parameters, the command parameters containing data indicating a value employed as an input for the command.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the conditional command further includes a condition parameter, the condition parameter containing data indicating a value to support evaluation of the plurality of conditions.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the conditional command further includes a global parameter, the global parameter containing data indicating a value to support evaluation of all conditional commands in a header of the data packet or to support consuming information associated with the global parameter.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the conditional command instructs the processor to modify a resource allocation for the data flow, modify a chosen next hop for the data flow, or update the flow context for the data flow when the condition set is satisfied.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the conditional command instructs the processor to modify data in the data packet, modify a chosen next hop for the data packet, modify a priority for the data packet, drop the data packet, buffer the data packet, or modify metadata in the data packet when the condition set is satisfied.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein determining that the condition set is satisfied includes parsing data from the data packet, checking the flow context of the data flow, checking the state of the network device, comparing data items, or checking an identity of the network device.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a computer program product for use by a network device, the computer program product comprising computer executable instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium such that when executed by a processor cause the network device to:

receive a data flow including a data packet, the data packet including a conditional command;

obtain a command from the conditional command;

obtain a condition set from the conditional command, the condition set including a plurality of conditions to be satisfied before the command is executed such that the command is ignored when the condition set is not satisfied, and the plurality of conditions comprising a state of the network device processing the data packet;

obtain a value from an and/or field from the conditional command, the value being a first value when the plurality of conditions must all be met to satisfy the condition set and execute the command, the value being a second value different from the first value when any of the plurality of conditions can be met to satisfy the condition set and execute the command;

determine that the condition set is satisfied; and

based on the determination that the condition set is satisfied, execute the command to alter handling of the data flow, alter handling of the data packet, or alter a flow context for the data flow.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the conditional command instructs the network device to modify a resource allocation for the data flow, modify a chosen next hop for the data flow, or update the flow context for the data flow when the condition set is satisfied.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the conditional command instructs the network device to modify data in the data packet, modify a chosen next hop for the data packet, modify a priority for the data packet, drop the data packet, buffer the data packet, or modify metadata in the data packet when the condition set is satisfied.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein determining that the condition set is satisfied includes parsing data from the data packet, checking the flow context of the data flow, checking the state of the network device, comparing data items, or checking an identity of the network device.